When Her Heart Comes Around
by RyleeBeth
Summary: "I'm sorry your husband doesn't love you." "I'm sorry your wife doesn't love you, either."


_What possessed me to write this, I have no idea. I'm positive that this is the most emotional and bittersweet thing I've ever written. I hope it's decent. Oh, and the identities of the main characters will be revealed one at a time. Once you start reading you'll understand what I mean._

The first time she asks her husband if he loves her, she can feel the knife being twisted into her stomach, but the pain does not scare away all of her hope.

"Do you love me?"

"I married you, didn't I?"

She thought it best to live on her dreams, and pretended to ignore the off look in his eyes and the aching insincerity in his voice. She remembers the night he proposed to her. It was dark, cool autumn night. They were walking hand-in-hand on the sidewalk, daring to brush against the ends of the empty streets. Lima, Ohio was hardly the place to worry about getting hit by a car. She tried to hide her shivering from him. She didn't like to show any weakness or emotion around him. Maybe she should have seen that as a sign, but she didn't, and the night proceeded.

He caught her slim frame shaking to fight the cold, and awkwardly offered her his jacket. She refused his offer, and he did not press it any further. They walked in silence for so long that it became monotonous. She didn't know why she was still there, and neither did he. Eventually, though, he caught the courage to do what his mother thought he should have done years before.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes, of course I'll marry you, Puck."

After six years of dating, starting at the young age of sixteen, they wed in a grand ceremony. The color scheme of the wedding was white with pale purple accents. She didn't even like purple that much, but something about the event drove her to pick a light shade of lilac. It just seemed to fit the occasion, and who was she to question holy matrimony?

"I love you so much," he would tell her.

"I love you more," she would gasp. (He used to leave her breathless.)

Time went by in a rushed whirl, and soon the power of the magnetism between them seemed to lessen. She told herself that nothing had changed and that she was just being ridiculous, but time proved her wrong. Things were changing, and she was only catching onto the truth. The truth hurts.

It wasn't until they were twenty-four when she realized that they weren't slipping away from each other, and that he was cutting their ties. How could he cheat on her? After everything that they'd been through together, how could he cheat on each other? Once again, she told herself that it was nonsense. (But deep down she knew the truth, and decided to hold on until her knuckles turned white.)

Eventually, she gave up on lying to herself. Puck was having an affair, and it was tearing her apart at the seams. She loved him, he was her husband, and he was having an affair. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to confront him. The words would get stuck in her throat, and she'd end up asking him what he wanted for dinner instead. The closest she ever came was over the phone one night, while she was trying to ignore the familiar and feminine voice in the background.

"Where are you, Puck, and when are you coming home?"

"I'll be home by the end of the night.

Flinching from his aversion of her first question, she timidly asked, "You'd never cheat on me, would you Puck?"

"Why are you asking that?"

"I h-have to go," she tearfully choked out.

Talking to him on the phone always made her feel worse. It just reaffirmed the distance between the two, instead of working to close it. The only people she liked talking on the phone with Santana, Mercedes, and her closest friend. The only people, besides her and Puck, who knew about the failing marriage were Santana and the latter.

"You deserve better than that, Q," Santana had told her one time.

"I-I can't get a divorce."

"You have to. You can't go on living like this. Believe it or not, I care about you."

"I-

She heard the song on the radio, and then Santana heard the line click silent.

_Beth, I hear you calling and I hope you'll be al-_

Screaming, she unplugged the radio and ran into the next room. Her back slammed against the wall and she sank to the floor. No, no, no, this wasn't happening. Her life wasn't supposed to be like this. How did this happen? Sobbing, she started listing all the reasons she hated herself in her head.

With each reason came the increased difficulty to breathe. Her sobs grew harder and longer, and the depressing amount of makeup she wore came streaming down her face. Maybe if she were prettier, this wouldn't have happened. Keeping that thought in mind, she forced herself to stop her bellows and tears, and went to the bathroom to reapply her makeup. That evening, she skipped dinner. In fact, skipping meals became a recurring fashion for her.

But she couldn't stay away from food forever. Cooking helped to distract her from the horrors of her life. Just because she was eating, though, didn't mean each spoonful filled her with guilt. Her guilt and self-hatred grew stronger after making a very heart wrenching discovery.

"I know who he's cheating on you with," her best friend told her over the phone. They never saw each other in person alone because of their marriages.

"No you don't. How would you ever know that?"

"Think about it long and hard, Quinn. Think about everything I've been through with-

"She wouldn't do that."

"Puck did."

"But she's different. She would never-

"But she did."

"No."

"I have to go, Quinn."

She didn't know what she was looking for, but she started searching allover her and Puck's bedroom. Perhaps she was trying to find some sign that it wasn't true. She found the opposite. There was a blouse on the floor, and it wasn't hers. Her best friend had given it to his wife. Her friend was right; their spouses had been going behind their backs. Crying quietly, she stuck a sticky note on the piece of clothing left behind.

_I thought we were friends._

_-Quinn_

Immediately after, she called her friend back, praying that he would answer. He had to. She knew he was hurting just as badly as her, but she needed him.

"You're right."

"I know."

"I'm pregnant again."

"What?"

"I always thought we'd be _happily_ married when we'd have another baby. I guess I was wrong. This is the second baby that Puck and I are going to have under less than perfect circumstance. Why is this happening?"

"That I don't know."

"I wish you did."

"So do I."

"I don't know what to do."

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"I'm sorry your husband doesn't love you."

"I'm sorry that your wife doesn't love you, either."

She was four months pregnant when her divorce was finalized. Puck must have decided they were through when his new woman found the note on her top and freaked out. She hates how her strength has been drained to the point that things were ended on Puck's terms. Puck told her that he wanted to be involved in the baby's life. He wanted to be the father of their baby, just not her husband. Yes, she told him about the pregnancy. Years ago, she vowed to never lie about anything baby related in any way. As it turned out, she sort of broke that promise. She never told Puck that after they got divorced, she had started to visit Shelby and Beth.

She didn't want the house as it would just remind her of all the pain, so she agreed to give it to Puck. (And to the woman who she thought was her friend. Her best friend and his ex-wife got divorced a few months after she and Puck had.) In a strange twist of events, Brittany and Mike ended up taking her into their house. While she had at first turned down their offer, they insisted that they were worried about her and just wanted to help. On the day her friend's divorce was finalized, she and her friend went to Starbucks to celebrate their new beginnings. They had both agreed to never let someone else dominate their lives the way their ex-spouses had did to them ever again. Quinn's drink was decaffeinated, considering that she was seven months pregnant.

"I know the gender," she told him.

"Really? I thought you didn't want to find out, and that's why you told the ultrasound tech to not tell you when you were five months."

"Yeah. For some reason I just needed to know at my appointment today."

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"It's a boy."

"That's amazing, Quinn."

"Mmm. I just wish her father was as good of a man as you are."

"I love you, Quinn."

"What?"

"I love you. I've always trusted and cared about you. You've been my best friend for so long, and I realized in the past couple of months that losing you would hurt more than losing my first marriage does. The past couple of months while I was getting divorced, I've been falling in love with you."

She loved him, and she knew it, but her hand flew down to her stomach.

"I can't. I just can't. This baby…"

He was there when she gave birth. Puck was there too, but he meant so much more. Because he was always there, and always loyal. Sure, things were awkward considering she had rejected him a few months ago, and because his ex-wife who happened to be Puck's girlfriend was in the waiting room, but no matter how awkward it got, he would always be there for her.

Nicholas Fabray-Puckerman came screeching into the world just five months after she had divorced his father. Puck had custody on the weekends, and when Nicholas was with Puck, she would always go to her friend's because he didn't care if she cried the whole two days away. He would let her put her head on his shoulder and sob. After a few weekends, she wouldn't cry anymore. She'd keep him company with dry eyes and let him hold her hand. After a few months, the holding hands grew into something more. She was his soul mate, and he was hers. It had just taken them each another lover's betrayal to come to their senses.

For the sake of Nicholas when he grew old enough to understand, she forged a somewhat cordial relationship with his father. She even smiled for Puck's happiness when he married the woman he had cheated on her with. The man clutching her hand and kissing her numerous times throughout the ceremony smiled in happiness for the woman he had once loved. Their feelings for the newlyweds had faded, and there was no jealousy in the church. (Though that didn't stop their kisses from being fiery and passionate.)

Five years later, after she had married the real love of her life and had a daughter, named Arianna, with him, she was listening to the radio while getting ready for work one morning.

_Beth, I know you're lonely, and I'll hope you'll be alright._

She thought to herself about how she was no longer lonely. In her life she had been named Quinn Fabray, Quinn Fabray-Puckerman, then Quinn Fabray again, and then finally Quinn Abrams. She had no intention of ever changing her last name again.

_Me and the boys are playing all night… all night._

She silently forgave Puck and Tina, and continued on with her new life.

_Did the pairings shock you? Sorry if there are any mistakes; this was un-beta'd. Please review!_


End file.
